Every year, after the Ganesha Navaratri idols of Ganesha are taken to the nearest water source and immersed in them. Did you know how this tradition/ritual actually started?
Well as you know, I love crazy conspiracy theories. It's a great form of entertainment. Moreover, the stuff that keeps cropping up in the name of mythology is astounding. Most of them are just fanciful imagination of some creative genius who decided that the puranas weren't vague enough. So they confuse people with some more stories. So there's this story that explains why Ganesha is immersed in water after the Navaratri. We are all aware of the puranic story where Ganesh is the scribe who wrote the Mahabharata under dictation from Veda Vyas. According to this crazy story that I read, as Lord Ganesh was taking down the dictation furiously, Ved Vyas noticed that he was becoming hot. Eventually, Lord Ganesh became so hot that he started to smoke! That was when Ved Vyas decided to cool him down by dousing him in a pool of water. It is said that the practice of Ganesh Nimajjanam originated from this incident.
First of all, whoever wrote this, you get like a 1000 points for creativity. Frankly, I haven't read anything that can support this, although I have known to be wrong from time to time. The concept of Ganesh Nimajjanam has nothing to do with a hot Ganesha. This heated Ganesha story seems to be one of those folk stories that keep coming up whenever there is a cultural resurgence of any god. The practice of Ganesha Nimajjanam resurfaced with Sivaji Maharaj who promoted it as a means to revolt against the tyrannous Mughals! All the rituals that we follow today were designed in this period. Several such stories were also made popular during this time in order to motivate more and more people to follow these rituals.
Contrary to popular belief, Sanathana Dharma is not just about idol worship. We believe in worshiping the divine, both as having a form and being formless. This is mentioned in the puranic texts as Sagun Saakar and Nirgun Nirakar. During the festival season, devotees give a corporal form to the infinite divine to conduct the rituals. The suggested way to do this to take clay from a nearby water source and shape into a Ganesha. The idol is then worshiped for a period and eventually immersed into the same water. This practice is based on the principle of the lord as a supreme being, present in the natural elements around as. We give him a shape/form for the purpose of worship and then return him back to the ocean/river/lake which stands for the infinite nature of the supreme god. In other words, you are simply worshiping nature in different forms, symbolizing the concept of moksha.
There is another practical explanation as to why this practice originated. According to tradition, idols were only supposed to be made from clay. The clay to make these idols is taken from water-bodies nearby. This process cultivates the river bed soil which is highly beneficial to the aquatic ecosystem. Also, the idols are worshiped using turmeric and other items which serve to enrich the river soil further when they are immersed back into the process. That is why the environment has been taking a major hit ever since Plaster-Of-Paris Ganesha made his appearance. Again, I'm not really sure if this is the actual explanation, but it certainly seems to be a lot more practical than the rest! What do you think?
